1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to expansion cards within computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for identifying which expansion cards are installed in a computer system.
2. Related Art
Modern computer systems are typically configured to accommodate expansions cards that provide additional functionality and resources. For example, expansion cards can provide various bus or network interfaces. Expansion cards can also improve computational performance by, for example, providing a graphics accelerator, and can increase storage capacity by providing interfaces to additional disk drives.
As larger numbers of expansion cards are incorporated into a computer system, it becomes progressively harder for a system administrator to determine which expansion cards are installed in the computer system. It is often necessary for a system administrator to know which expansion cards are incorporated into a computer system, for example, to plan upgrades, to determine servicing requirements, and to determine if a given application will execute on the computer system.
Some expansion cards, such as expansion cards adhering to the Small Computers System Interface (SCSI) standard, provide an inquiry command, which allows an expansion card to be queried to identify the expansion card. This makes it easy to identify what types of expansion cards are incorporated in a computer system.
However, other expansions cards, for example expansion cards adhering to the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) standard, do not support queries of this type. For expansion cards of this type, the process of determining which expansion cards are installed in a computer system typically involves manual techniques, which are time-consuming and error-prone. For example, when an expansion card is installed in a computer system, the system administrator can manually update a configuration file to identify the expansion card. This configuration file can subsequently be accessed to determine which expansion cards are installed in the computer.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for identifying computer expansion cards that without the problems described above.